Red Frog Beach

We were far from being tired of Bocas but were looking to check out some new scenery, so we thought we would take our boat over to nearby Red Frog Beach. Red Frog Beach is located at the end of Isla Bastimentos, the same island where we celebrated Conor’s birthday the month before. Red Frog Marina is on the south side of the island while the actual beach is on the north side, but the whole property itself is referred to as Red Frog Beach. We motor about 45 minutes and drop our anchor outside the Marina. The first thing I noticed, besides the fact that this anchorage was way calmer and quieter than Bocas, was that the WiFi signal on my computer was extremely strong. I know this seems like a geeky thing to get excited about, but we could now stream music, Skype with friends and family , and even watch Hulu…creature comforts which I take advantage of when I can. Nights at Red Frog are much quieter than the party atmosphere of Bocas, and there is minimal boat traffic to wake us out at night. One downside we noticed pretty quickly, albeit small, is that their are tons of Moon Jellyfish in the water around the anchorage. I still jump in occasionally to bathe, but I have to be really cognizant of what is in the water around me, a task not so easy for the nighttime swims.

During the day we walk to the actual Red Frog Beach, which is beautiful. The beach itself is a tourist destination for people staying in Bocas, and there is even a truck which shuttles visitors back and forth from the water taxi dock to the beach. While it is a beautiful beach and there is a nice little bar/grill as well as a little surf shack set up for the guests, it is usually moderately populated (50 or so people). We realized pretty quickly that if you walk less than a half mile from where the shuttle drops everyone off there is another beach named Playa Tortuga, which is almost always deserted. We have never seen more than maybe 4 other people besides us on this 2 mile plus stretch of beach. The west end of the beach has a great big rock that provides shade in the water, so we can swim on at hot day and not have to be in the sunlight unless we want to, an awesome plus if you can picture it. We walk from the dinghy dock to Playa Tortuga every day with Gimpy and love swimming in what might as well be our own private beach.

Besides the beautiful beaches, we also enjoy just walking around the Red Frog Beach property. Their are some villas which they are building that are all at different stages of construction. While I don’t really think the design of the homes really fit into the surroundings, the views are spectacular. There is one spot that has a small trail through the woods with a zipline course at the end. There is nothing quite like hiking through a jungle. Once you get past the heat, the sights are amazing. Shannon and I walked the trail and found a bunch of the red frogs which the property is named after. It turns out that the red frogs are actually a species of poison dart frog which get their color and toxins from eating ants. We were really excited and proud of ourselves when we found the first one but soon realized that they were all over the place in the shaded jungle area.

Another great thing about Red Frog Beach is that we have access to a public shower which actually has hot water! Yes, you heard me right. How spoiled are we? We can enjoy not only freshwater showers, but hot freshwater showers every day if we want to.
-t

One Response to Red Frog Beach

thats where stef and i stayed. if you walk even farther we got to blue frog beach, where all the frogs are…..blue. its where we saw monkeys swimming in the water on the beach and they wouldnt let us pass them. congrats on the babe. hope you get up to gainesville soon, ive done a lot to the restaurant and its really different now. and looking in to buying a bar in costa rica, but thats turning out to be a lot harder than it sounds.